


Timeline

by pringlesaremydivision



Category: Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-05-08
Updated: 2004-05-08
Packaged: 2017-12-23 06:23:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/923046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pringlesaremydivision/pseuds/pringlesaremydivision
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Eli kisses Margot he is eleven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Timeline

**Author's Note:**

> Just moving some stuff over from Livejournal.

The first time Eli kisses Margot he is eleven, and she hits him directly afterwards.  
  
"You said I could kiss you," he tells her, incredulous, holding his arm and leaning back against the cold brick of the building behind him. And then he says "ow," as quietly as he can, just to drive his pain home.  
  
"I know I did," Margot says vaguely, looking up at him from beneath her lashes. Her gaze belies nothing, not even a hint of an apology; though Eli doesn't really expect one, if he's honest.  
  
Eli can feel her heartbeat, they're still so close, and he wonders in the detached way he's taken to thinking when he's around her if this is how you're supposed to fall in love.  
  
"Of course it isn't," Margot answers when he asks, her mouth quirked in impatient disdain. "Don't be ridiculous, Eli."  
  
She shakes her head and moves away, and Eli feels the wind bite at him with painful precision.  
  
::  
  
The second time Eli kisses Margot he is thirty, and realization hits him directly afterwards.  
  
She sits down next to him, and for all of a minute they both do nothing but stare at each other, and then he lifts his hand half-unwillingly to her hair and smoothes it down even though it's smooth already.  
  
"Haven't seen you for a while," he tells her, for lack of anything else to say, and then her mouth is on his, her fingers gripping his shoulder, pressing marks into his jacket.  
  
"I've been around," she mumbles against his lips, and he doesn't doubt it. She tastes bittersweet, and he supposes that's appropriate.  
  
When she leans back there's an eyelash on her cheek, and he brushes it off onto his finger. "Make a wish," he says.  
  
"You," she answers.  
  
"I really think -" he starts.  
  
"Make a wish, Eli," she tells him, quietly.  
  
He closes his eyes and exhales. When he opens them again the eyelash is still there, a tiny black crescent that just proves the point he was fairly sure on to begin with.  
  
"You're no good for me, Margot," Eli says, and Margot nods. "And yet."  
  
Margot nods again.  
  
When she leaves, Eli feels inexplicably numb.  
  
::  
  
The last time Eli kisses Margot he is thirty-two, and closure hits him directly afterwards.  
  
"You were never in love with me, were you," he asks, but it's more of a statement than a question anyway, and he's well aware of the fact that Margot knows that.  
  
"I don't think I was," Margot says, and her eyes flick involuntarily across the room, and though Eli's back is turned he knows she's looking at Richie, deep in conversation with Chas by the fireplace.  
  
He cups her cheek delicately, hoping his hands aren't shaking as badly as the rest of him is, and she looks at him and smiles, barely.  
  
"Not again," she whispers, and shakes her head.  
  
"Just once," he tells her, "just once."  
  
He kisses her gently, barely a brush of lips, and he considers the fact that she doesn't pull away to be possibly the most telling thing of all.  
  
"Do you remember when I told you I wasn't in love with you any more?" he asks her, pressing his forehead to hers.  
  
He feels Margot nod slowly.  
  
"I mean it now," Eli says, and then he steps away, pulls open the door, and steps out into the warm autumn sunshine.


End file.
